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Intangible. Untouchable. All things to some People. And a laughable concept to everyone else…

Good Evening.

There was quite a downbeat demeanour among some Scotland fans on social media last night. Ireland qualified for Euro 2016 and joined the rest of Scotland’s neighbours: England, Northern Ireland, Wales and Iceland at next summer’s Big Party in France.

To be fair, there was also a lot of magnanimity (and some joy!) about Ireland’s qualification. Under the curious combination of O’Neill and Keane, they came through a tough group, making the absolute best of the (limited) resources at their disposal, and getting some big and unlikely results when needed.

Unlike Scotland. Again.

However, alongside the gloom and magnanimity there was some outright grumpiness on show last night. And I fear that emotion may have got the better of some, including Craig Burley.

Oh dear Craig…

I fear he may have fallen into the trap of assuming that we can’t hold more than one rational thought in our heads at a time.

Which (of course) we can.

I am sure (for example) that many of those those who care about the Scotland national team may have managed to be utterly hacked off about that dismal and costly performance in Georgia AND hope that the domestic game could thrive on a level playing field.

Of course, if Craig thinks that the talk about the potential stripping of titles from Rangers (IL) is ‘pitiful’, then he is woefully out of touch with what a lot of paying fans and lovers of the Scottish game are thinking. As I have repeatedly said, the issue at stake couldn’t be any more important. It is about whether the game is honest or a lie. Whether it is a sport or a sham.

If fans didn’t have any concerns then THAT would be truly pitiful, Craig!

As can occasionally happen on Twitter, some people challenged Burley about his view, and it didn’t seem to go down well.

No doubt a few took the criticism too far (and as ever, I say that it isn’t on), but most didn’t, and Mr Burley did appear to have a bit of a downer on Scotland and the “utter cretins”.

And to be honest, who can blame a man for getting worked up by people challenging his forthright football-related assertions when he

works as a TV football pundit

refers to himself as an “argumentative sod” on his Twitter profile; and

tweets to his 21,000 followers about two of the hottest topics in Scottish football .